People don't feel the passage of time when they are in darkness.
I don't know how long it has been, but there was no movement from Mao Guizhi's side.
I spoke, "Sister-in-law, do you think we can still get out?"
Soon her voice came from my front left, "I'm afraid we can't."
Hearing her say that, my last shred of luck vanished.
This time, am I really going to be trapped in this damned place?
"Sister-in-law, you said before you were looking for an ancient corpse? What ancient corpse were you looking for?" I asked.
After a long while, she spoke, "There's nothing left to hide now..."
"How much do you know about that woman?" she suddenly asked me.
In this desperate situation, I felt she was right; there was indeed nothing left to hide.
So I told her everything about how I met Sister Ying, and about the safe that I had never told anyone about.
After listening, Mao Guizhi smiled and said, "No wonder you went to such lengths to find her. It seems you've fallen for her?"
I didn't deny it.
To be honest, since I met Sister Ying, my feelings for her have changed a lot.
"It's a pity, though, that the person you've fallen for isn't suitable for you," Mao Guizhi said. "Have you ever thought about whether you two could have a future if she really could live forever?"
I gave a wry smile. "I haven't thought that far ahead. Right now, I'm just very worried about her... If she can truly live forever, how has she managed all these years? Watching her friends one by one depart, experiencing life and death separations again and again..."
Mao Guizhi interrupted me, "Don't forget, even if she can live forever, her memory will be reset."
I hadn't expected her to know about Sister Ying's memory loss as well.
"I don't know more about her than you do," Mao Guizhi said. "Actually, the reason I came here this time was just to verify one thing."
"What thing?"
"Whether she can truly live forever," Mao Guizhi said.
I didn't quite understand what she meant by that, and soon her voice sounded again, "From what I understand now, she has a total of thirteen identities, and each identity appears in a different era... The only thing that's the same is that every time she appears, she does so as a 'young lady'."
"Young lady?" I asked, a little confused. "Does this identity have any special meaning?"
"No special meaning, it's just a plausible identity."
"A plausible identity?"
"Indeed. Think about it, if you could live forever, what kind of identity would you adopt to survive?"
Before I could answer, Mao Guizhi said, "When you knew her, her name was An Ying, right? What was her identity? Wasn't she the daughter who suddenly appeared in the An family?"
I suddenly realized what she meant. It meant that every time Sister Ying appeared, she would do so as someone's daughter, which is why so many people called her 'young lady'.
"Young lady" meant exactly what it said, just like when we were in Guangling, Sister Ying's identity was An Zhongyi's daughter, so Uncle Hong and the others called her 'young lady'.
This meant she could be the young lady of the An family, or the young lady of the Li family; these were just her "identities," ways to hide herself.
"Then, if what you're saying is true, why would others acknowledge this identity?" I asked.
In the darkness, I heard Mao Guizhi chuckle. "If these were all things arranged by our ancestors, would you follow them?"
"You mean, the ancestors of the An family had already made arrangements, so her appearance in Guangling, becoming the An family's young lady, was all planned?" I asked.
"Yes... Actually, my grandfather also instructed my father that if a woman ever came to our Mao family, no matter what she wanted, she should be given it." Mao Guizhi said.
"Then how did you confirm that it was definitely her?" I asked.
Mao Guizhi took a deep breath and slowly said, "Because she possesses something that resonates with us."
"What is it?"
"The token."
"Token?" I was a bit confused.
"It's the tattoo I showed you earlier... Once that woman appears, the tokens on us will change."
I found it incredible and asked, "Then how did that... token... get tattooed on you?"
"When the previous holder of the token dies, they can choose to pass the token to someone else..."
"Pass it on?"
"Yes, I can't find a better word for it. It's a very mysterious process..."
Mao Guizhi said that back then, her father, on his deathbed, called her over, told her everything, took her hand, and spoke words she had never heard before.
She said those words were like a spell.
After her father finished chanting the spell, she felt her head grow heavy, and when she came to her senses, she felt a burning pain on her arm.
That's how she got the 'token' on her arm.
Hearing this, I was stunned and didn't quite react. "You mean that tattoo suddenly appeared on you?"
"Yes," Mao Guizhi said. "I also found it incredible, so I went to have people examine it, but they couldn't find anything..."
That's not right. Wang Yang told me earlier that this tattoo was done by his father when he was a child...
I was suddenly confused. Could it be that Mao Guizhi was lying to me?
But at this point, there was no reason for her to lie to me about this, was there?
If what she said was true, then what Wang Yang said was a lie.
But why would Wang Yang lie?
My mind became a mess, and for a moment, I didn't know what to say, so I could only continue listening to Mao Guizhi's narration.
"I've made many speculations and assumptions..."
Mao Guizhi paused and said, "Do you want to hear them?"
"Yes," I nodded.
"Based on my current deductions, although that woman has the ability to live forever, her memory is reset every time she revives."
"Revives?"
"Yes, as long as she dies once, her previous memories are cleared," Mao Guizhi said. "I've read my grandfather's notes. In them, he wrote that there was a period when the young lady suddenly disappeared. At that time, the young lady was suffering from a plague and seemed close to death... But after some time, she reappeared, not only was the plague gone, but her mental state was completely different from before... yet she didn't remember many things."
"So you infer that she revived that time?" I asked.
"Yes," Mao Guizhi said.
I carefully considered her theory. It wasn't entirely unreasonable, but if that were the case, how did Sister Ying, without her memories, find people who had the 'token'?
I voiced this doubt, and Mao Guizhi said, "It's highly likely she has something on her that allows her to sense people who have the token."
Her explanation made many things clear.
Sister Ying's memory would disappear, so after each rebirth, she had to search for her past memories.
In other words, she had been searching for her memories all these years?
In other words, she was also investigating who she truly was...